Vo Knows

OTT Looks at Mladin and Spies' Data

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

On the Throttle TV gives you Part 12 of “Inside with the Champ” featuring Mat Mladin. We found this one especially interesting, as it compares Mladin and ex-rival Ben Spies’ data from their three years of AMA Superbike competition and really provides the viewer with some inroads into just how close the two actually were. Great stuff!

Race Fan
-Good Find Atlas
March 9, 2010 12:53 PM
Superb video! All too many times fans claim it’s the HP advantage or equipment the factory guys have that allow them to win most of the time. Although these factors certainly help, the real key is having the skill and intelligence to use the factory hardware. The data acquisition alone is more useful/helpful than any amount of extra hp or trick parts. Knowing how or being able to get the most out of this resource is even more invaluable. This partway explains why other factory Suzuki riders other than Mladin and Spies did not have nearly as much success. Both of those guys not only have the skill to use the factory equipment but also know how to get every last bit of performance out of it.

I am not surprised that their data was so close because when you get lap times down to where theirs were, and being so close to each other, it gets to the point where only so many lines will work and very similar amounts of throttle at about the same time are needed along with braking. Riding at their level there are very few riding style changes that really can be made without upsetting other features of their style so like Mladin says it came down to tires or race start.

Factory bikes don’t always have the most power; Zemke’s Daytona results proved that when he beat the factory Suzuki on the high banks of Daytona.

Mladin was so successful in SBK because he gets the most satisfaction from racing harder than what he thought was possible, breaking out of the comfort zone and leaving it all on the track. That…is a true blooded racer. It may be a very long time until we find a rider that will raise the field’s collective riding ability. Ben Spies was to Mladin what the 2004 Yamaha M1 GP bike was to Rossi…a challenge that brought back the raw thrill of racing.

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